


Inside Iron Man (Headcanon)

by capiocapi



Series: Congratulations, it's a Boy [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony has daddy issues, headcannon, young Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 10:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11758341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capiocapi/pseuds/capiocapi
Summary: A glimpse into Tony's childhood and his headspace in the first Iron Man movie.





	Inside Iron Man (Headcanon)

**Author's Note:**

> Spider-Man: Homecoming gave me all the feels. This was my attempt to get into Tony's mind a little and set his character up before he ever comes into contact with Peter. A Homecoming story is sure to follow...

**Childhood**  
Tony was a lonely kid. He built his first computer at 4 and his first engine at 6; there wasn't anyone his age that could relate to him. His dad, no real idea how to meet the emotional needs of a little genius, helped him in the only way he knew how - by making sure he always had access to the best education, the best technology. His mother was better with the emotions, but could never truly understand Tony's mind, and despite wanting to have her son close, couldn't help but agree with her husband's logic that a mind like Tony's needed to be nurtured. 

So they sent him away to school.

Howard realized early on that his son's intellect surpassed his own, and he always saw Tony in terms of what he could become. He had this vision in his mind, the vast array of possibilities, all the things his son would be able to accomplish with his amazing gifts. He didn't mean to be hard on him, he just couldn't comprehend it when Tony would refuse to live up to his potential. Howard never verbalized his pride in Tony's accomplishments; the fact that Tony could do the things he could do was obvious, and the fact that Howard was immensely proud was a foregone conclusion.

All Tony saw was a dad who was never satisfied. What to Howard was a foregone conclusion, to Tony was an unproven hypothesis. His dad was never proud because it was never enough. He could build a computer before he could ride a bike, but his dad was sure that the computer could be faster, better. He could recreate an engine he saw in a racing magazine, but his dad wondered why he hadn't improved upon it while he was at it - he'd been 7.

Howard was aware of the fact that ever since he was young, Tony would talk to the machinery around him. He assumed it was because verbalizing what he was doing helped his son order his thoughts. What he didn't realize was that Tony talked to them because they were his friends. In his mind, they were his kind helpers; never judging, always encouraging, sometimes a little sarcastic, but always loving and always there when he needed them. The machines around him were everything the adults in his life weren't; everything the kids his age didn't know how to be.

 

**Iron Man**  
Tony could easily divide his life between before Afghanistan, and after. 

Life was simple before. He could sleep around to meet his physical needs, and he had JARVIS for nearly everything else. JARVIS was not only a perfectly capable assistant and nearly able to keep up with him mentally, he had the added benefit of being permanent. JARVIS would never decide to move on, he'd never ask for another job, he'd never get fed up with Tony and claim he'd had enough. Tony could poke fun at him, and he'd never misunderstand or get offended. JARVIS was the one relationship in his life that was easy.

JARVIS wasn't much of a drinking buddy, but Rhodey was good at that. And JARVIS couldn't always be a buffer between Tony and all the people who wanted his attention for entirely unnecessary reasons, but that's where Pepper came in.

Life was good before. He'd gone into the family business. The Stark name was respected in America for being a leader in weapons technology, and Tony was happy to continue the legacy. He'd never really given much thought to the people his weapons might hurt, because for him it was simple: the weapons were used by the good guys to hurt the bad guys. What enthralled him was the technology itself. He wasn't just an inventor, he was an improver, a problem-solver. He enjoyed the challenge of outdoing himself with each new creation.

Life stopped being so simple after Afghanistan. It was in a desert half a world away that he came to the awful realization that he'd been naive all along. 

When Tony'd been a teenager at MIT, one of the other students had asked to see a project he'd been working on. Tony had been thrilled to show him, glad that finally one of the adults he went to school with was actually interested in his work instead of just showing the same not-so-subtle resentment that most of the others did. He never imagined that the guy had only asked to see it so he could steal the design. He'd never even dreamt of the possibility - for the most logical reasons, of course. One, because it was pretty clear to everyone there that Tony was the most advanced student at MIT; the other students, despite being adults, simply weren't capable of keeping up. Two, because the people at MIT were there to learn, weren't they? It wouldn't make sense for someone to shortchange themselves by stealing the work instead of doing it themselves. And three, because it was just mean. Young Tony, despite his loneliness, never really understood why people were mean. 

But among other things, his time at MIT had taught him all about how mean people could be. And from then on he'd learned to protect himself from others. He wasn't going to be the dumb kid who got his stuff stolen anymore.

Until Afghanistan showed him that he'd never really stopped being that dumb kid. Sure, he'd done pretty well at keeping people at arm's length, with a couple rare exceptions. But, caught up in the thrill of inventing and reinventing, it'd never occurred to him that his creations could be stolen and made to do the exact opposite of what he'd intended: hurt innocent people.

But boy, did he learn. Afghanistan took him to school in a way that MIT never had. He emerged from his ordeal in the desert with open eyes and clear purpose. People had died because, for all his genius, he'd been too stupid to see what was going on right under his nose. No more.

Iron Man was all about putting his tech in the only hands he trusted: his own.


End file.
